When Silvec Biologics CEO Rafael Simon submitted a proposal to the Environmental Protection Agency for an innovative product to fight citrus greening in January 2024, he knew that the process would take some time.
Now, two-and-a-half years later, he’s still waiting, still trusting the process, and still looking toward the future.
Part of the delay may be the product itself, which uses a benign virus that has been modified to include a spinach peptide that prompts the citrus tree to produce antibacterial agents to fight against the bacteria that causes greening. While the product is classified as a pesticide by the EPA, it wasn’t developed like a traditional pesticide.
The Silvec Biologics product is so radically different, says Simon, that sometimes what the EPA was asking for didn’t exactly fit how their product was designed. For example, he said, when filling out the forms about how much of the product would be used, the EPA was expecting gallons, like a traditional pesticide, but his scientists were working in minute nanogram amounts.
“And even that doesn’t tell the whole story, because those nanograms stay in for the life of the tree, consistently helping the tree produce the antibacterials that fight against greening.”
Simon says the EPA was helpful through the process. “They worked with us every step up of the way,” he says. “I can say that no one has gotten this far in the EPA process and not been approved, so it feels like we are in the ‘just about to be approved’ state.”
Another possible reason for the delay could be the status of the EPA itself, which lost 24 percent of its staff in 2025 and employs just over 12,000 people, the lowest employment in the EPA in over 40 years. But the delay in approval has not dampened Silvec Biologics’ work with their product. Simon says that he views this as “platform technology.”
“This platform is not just a one-trick pony,” he says, “and greening is not the only disease that attacks citrus. We are looking at using the same process to put in other things in order to make this a multi-modal technology, so that it can go, for example, after five different things.”
Simon says citrus will always be Silvec Biologics’ top priority, but he can also see this type of technology applied in other areas throughout the agriculture industry.
“We will always be in citrus first,” he says. “We have a trial set up in Lake Wales, and we are continuing to see success in our lab trials.
Simon says he fully expects to be approved by the fourth quarter of this year, which should be in time for the next CRAFT cycle.
This column is sponsored by Rucks Citrus Nursery, and the opinions expressed herein may not reflect those of CFAN or of its advertisers.